This section provides background information related to the present disclosure which is not necessarily prior art.
Generally, a wireless communication device such as a mobile phone has a printed circuit board (PCB) which includes a plurality of electronic parts for conducting individual functions. Such a PCB typically further includes a wireless communication module for wireless communication with another wireless communication device.
A wireless communication module includes a high-frequency antenna unit, which is generally connected to a connector to be grounded to a grounding pattern formed on the PCB.
A conventional method of fixing a high-frequency connector to a PCB is described below.
A general high-frequency connector has one end on which a connection unit having a device such as a high-frequency antenna connected thereto is formed and the other end on which a grounding terminal unit of a certain length that is accessible to a grounding pattern on an edge of a PCB is formed. In this case, the grounding terminal unit is generally in the shape of a rod of a predefined length. In addition, the grounding terminal unit may be composed of a plurality of rods.
The grounding terminal unit may be in physical contact with the grounding pattern on the PCB, and be soldered to the contact area by a solder material.
Thus, the bearing capacity or soldering force of the grounding terminal unit of the conventional PCB is dependent on the solder material because the grounding terminal unit is in direct contact with the grounding pattern on the PCB.
Hence, if an external impact is applied to the grounding terminal unit, a crack occurs on the soldered portion between the grounding terminal unit and the PCB, and as a result, the grounding terminal unit may be problematically moved aside or dislocated from the pattern of the PCB.
Further, since only the grounding terminal unit is soldered to the PCB, the mechanical stability cannot be ensured.
Thus, when a problematic event such as a crack occurs on a soldered portion, mechanical instability between the grounding terminal unit and the grounding pattern may increase, and accordingly the electrical stability may deteriorate since the conventional high-frequency connector increases fixation power by soldering on the PCB.
Furthermore, in an assembling procedure in which locations of the PCB and the high-frequency connector to be fixed are decided, since there is no additional apparatus for closely fixing the high-frequency connector to an edge of the PCB, manufacturing time is increased.
Specifically, when the PCB is inserted between grounding rods which are spaced apart from each other farther than a thickness of the PCB, the rods are not fixed but movable in respect of the edge of the PCB while the soldering process is performed. Therefore, during the soldering process, the connector may be dislocated, or one manufacturer needs to hold the connector and the PCB with both hands when another manufacturer solders the connector and the PCB, and as a result, the manufacturing process is inconvenient and soldering time is lengthened.
Moreover, a conventional high-frequency connector cannot be selectively fixed to a PCB which varies in thickness.
That is, due to such various thicknesses of PCB's, connectors for different distances between rods have been required. Therefore, it is required to develop a connector which can be fixed to an edge of a PCB before soldering, regardless of a thickness of a PCB, is easy to be soldered, and is applicable to PCBs of various thicknesses.